Success for Loughmacrory’s Laura at Irish Wallball Nationals

LOUGHMACRORY Handball Club enjoyed great success at the 2025 Irish Wallball Nationals.

Laura Duff secured another fabulous title success while Brenna Fox, Clare Conway and Orlagh Toner reached various finals and other club players participated and competed well over the weekend. This was the first time for the Irish Wallball Nationals to come to Tyrone and it proved a great success.

The Loughmacrory club hosted a large number of matches on Saturday across five grades and there was some terrific handball on display. The most successful grade for club players on Saturday was the 17&U girls event where Laura Duff recorded two super wins on Saturday over Leitrim’s Katie Kane and Antrim’s Cliona McGinley to go through to the national final on Sunday.

The club were hoping that Lucy McCullagh might join Laura in the national decider but after beating Galway’s Freya Donnellan with a brilliant quarter final display, Lucy bowed out at the semi final stage to Clare’s Claire Minogue in a tight battle. And so it was Laura against Claire Minogue in Sunday’s final in Beragh.

It took Laura a while to settle on the different court and after eight minutes it was looking like her chance had gone as Claire had swept into an 18-6 lead. But from 12 points down, Laura somehow produced a sensational comeback as she finally got into her stride. She drew level at 20 points each with one minute to go and then rattled off three unanswered points to clinch a superb 23-20 victory.

The result meant Laura retains her 17&U Irish nationals title from Limerick last year and now brings her tally of grade one national titles to an incredible 19 across the three codes.

Brenna also qualified for Sunday’s national finals in Beragh with two excellent wins on Saturday in the Ladies C singles grade in Killyclogher.

Brenna faced Sharon Wilson in Sunday’s decider and came home with the runner up trophy following a notable effort. Paul was the Lough flag bearer in the Men’s open singles and he continued his fantastic recent form with an excellent quarter final win over Sean Kerr on Saturday.

However Paul just wasn’t able to find his top form in Sunday’s semi final against the number 1 seed Conor McElduff and we congratulate Conor on going on to lift a record seventh Irish nationals men’s open singles title.

Clare was the Lough representative in the Ladies open and bowed out in the first round at the hands of Galway’s Ciana Ni Churraoin on Saturday but she went on to gain some compensation by winning the plate with a fine victory over Leah Minogue.

Orlagh also reached the plate final in the 13&U girls section by beating her own clubmate Aoibh before losing to the talented Sophie Kane 21-10.

Conor and Paudi took part in the Men’s C section, while Erin was our representative in the Ladies B grade and Chloe featured in a tough 15&U girls category.

Aodhan recorded a great win in the first round of the 13&U boys competition before bowing out to Bobby Cavanagh from Sligo in a very entertaining game and this was a great experience for Aodhan who has two more years remaining in this age group.

Owen reached the quarter finals of the Boys 15&U grade and was unlucky to lose out to Galway’s Learai O Greadaigh in a very tight match. Owen had just played a full U16 football match as Loughmacrory reached the county final earlier on Saturday, so this was an excellent effort to get so close to the last four. Conor and Eoin also took part in the 15&U grade in Loughmacrory, while Conor (McCullagh) featured in the 13&U grade with Aodhan and still has time on his side.

Overall the 2025 Wallball Nationals was a big success for Tyrone and the Loughmacrory club congratulate the Tyrone players who lifted titles on Sunday and the organisers who ensured everything ran off smoothly.